I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon after the event, thinking about the event and what I want to share with you:

The speaker party started with a down pour, forcing us into a too small back room that still worked. Great evening conversations.

We used the built-in SpeedPASS for the first time. For those that printed them it worked very well. We’ve got some work to do to smooth the way for those that forget to print, but even that line went at a good pace. Thanks again to Pam Shaw and Team Tampa for thinking of this and sharing the idea.

The speaker gift this year was an apron with the SQLSat #85 logo and the “chefs” name embroidered. A big hit at the party.

Volunteers were in lime green tshirts – easy to spot!

Lunch was BBQ, served buffet style. We avoided this in previous years as we worried about the logistics, but the team made it look easy. Four tables set up with garlic bread, coleslaw, baked beans, chicken, and pork, plus another table for vegetarians. I don’t think anyone waited more than couple minutes. All served by the speaker chefs who seemed to be having a very good time!

My only ‘watch out for next time item’, don’t put donuts next to a sunlit window in Florida or you’ll have a chocolate mess!

We changed building this year and that went smoothly,which astounds me a bit. Experience pays off,the team mapped what worked before to new location and it worked well.

The new building doesn’t have a balcony so I was expecting to end the ‘throw the prizes from the 2nd floor’ tradition, but there was another building near by that had one, so we moved over there for the end of day, and they invited me to help once again with the prize toss – always a good time!

On a related note, for me there was one part that was missing this year, my friend Jack Corbett. Jack moved back home to New England this year, the right move for him, but we missed him – the first SQLSaturday in Orlando without him.

I sent a private note to them, but I want to publicly thank Shawn McGehee, Karla Landrum, Brad Ball, and Kendal Van Dyke for making it happen this year, with very little help from me. Being able to survive a leadership transitions is huge and while I’m sure it wasn’t easy, they made it look that way. Nicely done team!

I'm Andy Warren, currently a SQL Server trainer with End to End Training. Over the past few years I've been a developer, DBA, and IT Director. I was one of the original founders of SQLServerCentral.com and helped grow that community from zero to about 300k members before deciding to move on to other ventures.